The Christmas That Never Was
by The Goon
Summary: Against Saix's wishes, Axel shows Christmas to Roxas and Xion, but it may be ruined when he is confronted by a haunting memory of his past. Oneshot Holiday Special.


**Hey guys, it's me, The Goon. Here's a holiday one shot of a trio of friends in Organization XIII. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or the characters used in this oneshot (Roxas, Xion, Axel, Saix, Hayner, Pence, and Olette)**

* * *

Organization XIII, or what was left of it, around half its members, looked into the night sky to see Kingdom Hearts, which was what they desperately desired. There were still so many things Roxas was unaware of. He never remembered his first few days as a Nobody in the Organization. He hadn't heard of summer vacation until months ago. He had never even heard of Christmas until this moment.

"Christmas?" asked Roxas, "What's that?"

Roxas, Xion, and Axel were sitting on a sofa in the Grey Room. Axel had brought up that the Somebodies celebrated Christmas around this time of year.

"Man, you really are out of the loop, Roxas," said Axel, "Christmas is one of those really big holidays people go crazy over."

"What do they do?" asked Roxas.

"Oh, they put up a tree, decorate it, the little kids write letters to Santa Claus…"

"Who's Santa Claus?" asked Xion.

"A fat, jolly old man in a red suit," replied Axel.

"Hey, I saw someone like that on my last mission in Halloween Town!" exclaimed Roxas.

"Don't know why he would be in Halloween Town, but okay," said Axel, "And if there's snow, people make snowmen and have snowball fights. People also give each other presents."

"Presents?" Roxas and Xion asked simultaneously.

"Something they think the other person would like," said Axel, "It's an act of love."

"But how can we give presents as an act of love if we have no hearts to feel love?" asked Roxas.

"And _that's_ why we Nobodies don't celebrate Christmas!" exclaimed Axel, "Got that memorized?"

"Axel," said Saix, approaching from behind, "I need a word with you immediately. Roxas, Xion, start your mission."

Roxas and Xion entered the Corridor of Darkness to the location of their mission as Axel followed Saix down the hall to talk.

"Why did you tell them about Christmas?" asked Saix.

"_That's _what you're so concerned about?" asked Axel, "If I were you, I'd worry more about the Heartless."

"But this is more immediate," replied Saix, "I suspect that now you have put that thought into their heads, they will become distracted by it while on their mission in Twilight Town."

"Look, I know you don't like either of them, but do you really have to act like that towards them?" asked Axel with an angry tone.

"I'm asking you this for their own good, to keep them from suffering the way we did!" shouted Saix. After calming down, he asked Axel, "Do you remember the Christmas we greatly anticipated before we became the Nobodies we are?"

Axel stopped to flash back to the cold Christmas Eve where he was not just a Nobody, but a real person named Lea, and his best friend Isa, who was now the cold blooded Saix.

* * *

_They were both standing under the moonlit sky, watching as the jolly old man rode on his sleigh towards all the homes in Radiant Garden._

"_Is that him?" asked Isa, "The guy they call Santa Claus?" _

"_Looks like him," said Lea cheerfully, "I'll be damned if there's anyone else in the world who wears a red suit and says 'Ho ho ho!'" _

"_He looks like he's coming right for us!" exclaimed Isa._

_Instead of going to the town, Santa went right to where Isa and Lea were eagerly awaiting. Something about Santa seemed different, however. He was large, yes, and was red, but it was not a robe, and he did not have the hat. He didn't even have the bag of goodies he always brought with him._

"_Are you sure about this? You weren't pulling my leg with all that Christmas stuff, were you?" asked Isa._

"_No I wasn't," replied Lea, "But something really is wrong about this."_

_The fat, round being, they soon realized, was actually a Heartless. It was coming right for them. They weren't quick enough, and were smashed by the giant Heartless that they thought was Santa._

_While their hearts were strong, their bodies were not as strong. _

* * *

And of course, the rest is obvious. First, Isa became a Heartless, as did Lea. Then after that, they became two Nobodies, Saix and Axel.

"Christmas is nothing but a frivolous delusion to escape harsh realities," said Saix, "All the sins, the suffering, the wrong doing…nothing can change any of that from happening, yet they have it in their heads that bringing joy and peace on that holiday will change that."

"Seems to me like you're just jealous," said Axel, "They celebrate Christmas because they have hearts. Isn't that what we're all after? To genuinely feel what they feel?"

Saix had no retort to that, so he just brushed it off and walked down the stairs back to the Grey Room.

* * *

Walking out from the Corridor of Darkness, Roxas and Xion saw that Twilight Town appeared different from how they remembered it last time they were there. Snow was on the ground, the lights were brighter than usual, and instead of twilight, it was evening. The sun that was usually setting at the time was replaced by a bright, white moon, followed by small stars. And there were also more people out.

"It's gonna be hard tracking down that Heartless with this many people around who can spot us," said Roxas.

"Is this what Christmas is?" asked Xion.

"Huh?" asked Roxas.

"Axel was telling us about Christmas earlier, right?" asked Xion, "I'm seeing bright lights, snow, and even a tree. See? You can see the star on top of the tree from here."

"You're right!" exclaimed Roxas, "Maybe we could go check that out first?"

"What about the Heartless?" asked Xion.

"We'll worry about that when there's less people," said Roxas, "Let's go!"

Roxas and Xion ran to the Sandlot where the tall Christmas tree was set up. There were ornaments aplenty hanging off the branches, and the gold star was at the very top of the tree, like Xion had pointed out. People were wearing heavier clothing than normal because of the cold weather. Some of it was even dark black, similar to the Organization XIII coats.

"You know," said Xion, "The more I look around, the less I'm worried about us sticking out."

Roxas wasn't paying attention to Xion. Instead, he was looking into the entrance to the underground terrace. He couldn't see anything, but he could certainly feel it.

"I've got a feeling we should look down there," said Roxas, pointing his finger towards the entrance.

"If you feel that, then that's all we have to go on," said Xion.

Roxas and Xion pushed their way past crowds and were struggling to get to where they needed to go. However, during this, they happened to bump into a trio of friends that Roxas had somewhat been acquainted with.

"Hey, man!" exclaimed Pence.

"Oh, hi," said Roxas softly.

Roxas had a few run-ins with Hayner, Pence, and Olette on his missions in Twilight Town. Hayner was the self appointed leader of the gang, who wore long green pants and had short blonde hair. He was a bit of a sore loser, though. Pence was the bigger one with the headband holding his hair up, but was quite friendly. And then there Olette, the lone female of the group, and the most level headed one in the group. She had long brown hair with an orange tank top. They had seen Roxas around, but not Xion.

"Been a while," said Hayner, "That's strange, that this is such a small town and we've only seen you around on a couple occasions."

"Maybe he just doesn't live here," said Olette, "Maybe he lives somewhere else and is just visiting, right?"

"Something like that," said Roxas.

Roxas couldn't tell them who he really was and where he was really from. It wasn't any of their concern, and Organization members were supposed to avoid contact with other people as often as possible.

"Hey, who's she?" asked Hayner, "A friend of yours?"

"Oh, was she the one you were looking for the first time I met you?" asked Pence.

"No, that was someone else," replied Roxas, "But she is a friend of mine."

"Are you new around here?" asked Olette.

"Um, yeah," replied Xion.

"Name's Pence," said Pence, stepping towards Xion to greet her.

Pence didn't really notice it and neither did Hayner and Olette, but to Roxas's surprise, she stepped back a bit, afraid to get close to them. Fortunately for her, a loud explosion was heard in midair. Everyone looked up to see the words MERRY CHRISTMAS being spelled out in the night sky by fireworks.

"They've really outdone themselves this year, am I right?" asked Hayner.

"Hey," said Olette, "Where did they go?"

They had just now noticed that Roxas and Xion were nowhere in sight. When everyone was distracted by the Christmas fireworks, Xion dragged Roxas by the hand to the underground terrace to try and find their target.

"What was with that?" asked Roxas.

"You were getting too distracted," said Xion, "And…well…"

"You seemed a little uncomfortable around them," said Roxas.

"I just don't feel safe around anyone other than you and Axel," said Xion.

"Not safe?" asked Roxas, "What does that mean?"

It wasn't as if Xion would answer his question, but even before she could, Axel stepped out from the Corridor of Darkness that formed in the wall.

"Axel! What are you doing here?" asked Roxas.

"I felt like it," replied Axel, "Had nothing better to do."

"But weren't you in trouble with Saix?" asked Xion.

"Nah, I brushed off what he said," replied Axel, "Haven't you found your target yet?"

"No," replied Roxas, "We think it might be down here, though."

As soon as Roxas said that, a giant Heartless with a round red body smashed through the wall and threw the trio off their feet.

"Speak of the devil," said Xion.

Roxas and Xion got their Keyblades out to fight the Heartless. Axel stood staring at the Heartless that appeared in front of them, and instantly knew he had seen it before.

It was the same Heartless that made him into a Nobody.

Axel drew out his Chakrams. He didn't care that it was Roxas and Xion's mission. He would be the one to take this Heartless out.

"Let's get it!" cried Roxas.

"Move!" shouted Axel, shoving his way past Roxas and Xion.

Axel ferociously threw his weapons at the Heartless, dodging its attacks. The Heartless was literally on fire, and it was only a matter of time before it was finally eliminated.

"Whoa," said Xion.

"Why were you so angry?" asked Roxas.

Axel felt at peace now that he had taken out the Heartless that was responsible for his predicament. He didn't like talking much about himself, though, so he responded, "I dunno. I guess Saix did put me in a bad mood."

* * *

Moments later, Roxas, Xion, and Axel were sitting on top of the clock tower as they usually did. This time, however, because of the weather, they were drinking hot chocolate instead of eating sea-salt ice cream, and were watching the snow fall instead of the sunset.

"I've never seen snow before tonight," said Xion.

"Neither have I," added Roxas, "It's so beautiful!"

Axel didn't say a word about the snow. To him, snow was associated with bad memories of his past.

"Oh no!" cried Roxas.

"What?" asked Xion and Axel simultaneously.

"I forgot to get you guys presents!" replied Roxas.

Xion and Axel laughed. Roxas didn't see what was so funny.

"Roxas, you don't _have_ to give something physical as a present," said Axel, "You two are all I want."

"Well, you've got us, then!" said Xion cheerfully.

The trio of friends laughed genuinely, enjoying the rest of Christmas night before they would have to return to their normal schedule.

* * *

**The End**

**Please review :)**


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